Khairy, who is also the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, said the Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Life Sciences Co Ltd will be sent to Pharmaniaga Bhd for packaging.

“For Sinovac, the first bulk delivery will be taken to the Pharmaniaga manufacturing facility where it will be bottled and filled,” he said in an interview with BFM today.

He added that the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) is currently reviewing Sinovac’s regulatory submission.

“Sinovac has not yet been registered by NPRA and is still pending approval,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the first batch of Pfizer vaccine will be arriving on Sunday morning.

“The vaccines have already left the Pfizer factory in Belgium. However, there are some transit points as they are carrying vaccines for other countries as well, and we will receive them on Feb 21.”

He said Malaysia will continue to receive subsequent batches from Pfizer every two weeks to reach one million doses by the end of this first quarter.

Previously, Pharmaniaga signed an agreement with Sinovac to manufacture two million doses of Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Life Sciences Co Ltd a month beginning in March.

Its group managing director, Zulkarnain Md Eusope, said the vaccine would be the first to be manufactured in Malaysia at the small volume injectable high-tech plant owned by Pharmaniaga’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Pharmaniaga LifeScience Sdn Bhd in Puchong.

He said the group would invest RM3 million to retrofit the plant to enable the production of the vaccine.

The agreement is for the supply of 14 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to be carried out through the fill-and-finish activity.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST DATA ON THE COVID-19 SITUATION IN MALAYSIA